September 9/07 1:21 am - MTB World Championships DH Report & Results

Photos It was deja vu at the Mountain Bike World Championships on the final day of competition, when both Sam Hill (Australia) and Sabrina Jonnier (France) repeated as world champions in the elite downhill. Host Britain also had lots to cheer about with medals in each of the elite and junior categories, including a gold medal in the junior men for Scottish hero Ruaridh Cunningham. France took a second world title in the junior women's race from Floriane Pugin.

FONT COLOR="#0033FF">Elite Women

The day started with promising weather - at least, promising for Fort William. High clouds and no rain meant that the track was drying out well for the Junior riders and Elite women.

Jennifer Makgill of New Zealand set the early at time of 5:57.48, only to be beaten by Melissa Buhl (USA) by three seconds. Buhl didn't even get a chance to sit in the Hot Seat before Fionn Griffiths (Great Britain came roaring down behind her to knock off another six seconds.

Griffiths time stood up until Jonnier set what proved to be the fastest time of 5:28.35, as the fifth to last rider to go. Of the four remaining riders, Tracy Hannah (Australia) managed to move into third and the fastest qualifier on the day, Rachel Atherton (Great Britain), took silver, but was still a full four seconds behind Jonnier. Former World Cup winner and British favourite Tracy Moseley ran into troubles higher on the course and finished fourth.

"It wasn't the best for me, as it was wet and muddy, and I am from the south of France where it is dry," commented Jonnier. "Also, it felt like I was on enemy territory, with Rachel and Tracy (Moseley) having so much support! But I focussed and just went for it. I broke my derailleur somewhere on the track, and made two huge mistakes when i took the wrong lines. It was so easy to make mistakes because the course was so long. But there was no way that i wanted to give up my jersey; I like it too much."

FONT COLOR="#0033FF">Elite Men

Sam Hill was definitely the man to beat. This year he has proven that he can win on wet tracks, dry ones, long or short. However, he did not qualify well, and 2003 world champ Greg Minnaar (South Africa) rode an extremely strong qualifier.

Hill's early start began to look prophetic when rain rolled in more or more heavily through the men's competition. The first rider off, Pasqual Flix Canals of Spain set an an extremely strong time; so strong that it held up until Hill set the winning time of 4:52.01 with 23 riders left. Fabien Barel (France), just back from injury, came within 64-hundredths of a second of taking his third title, but that was a close as anyone got.

Gee Atherton (Great Britain), second from last, managed 4:56.38 - good enough for third - while Minnaar could not duplicate his qualifying performance, finishing fourth, eight seconds back.

Hill explained his relatively poor showing in qualifying was partially due to circumstances and partially by choice.

"I had only one day of practice before qualifying, so I didn't know the lines very well and took it easy in qualifying. Plus, I didn't want the pressure of going last, and the pressure was more this time because I was defending."

"I like a longer course like this one because it takes me a little while to get into a rhythm, but this one was almost too long. I had quite a few little mistakes, and I didn't feel fully into my run, but I think it came down to the fittest guy who makes the fewest mistakes."

Race Notes

- Steve Smith crashed during his run and finished 11th in the Junior Men's race. Steve finished 3rd in the qualifying round and hopes were high. But it seems his injured hand may have caused the problem. He says that he crashed twice in training because he couldn't grip the bars properly.

- Cedric Gracia's crash in the 4-Cross turned out to be more serious then expected, with a badly broken wrist and ligament damage which requires surgery. He will obviously not be racing today.

- Junior woman Miranda Miller crashed badly in her run and was taken to hospital. She has a broken clavicle.